Wife of 32 years, 3 children. Certified catechist, nutrition adviser, and designer of the silicone cooking fork.
Investigating the current crisis in the Catholic Church post 1958.
On Twitter @DominieStemp

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Sunday, 22 July 2012

I met a retired teacher recently and she was playing Mozart on her CD player. I asked her about it, and she told me that when she was supervising her boarding house, she used to put a Mozart CD on - "it calms the children" - "Really?", I replied. "Yes - it's been scientifically proven - the beat in Mozart calms boisterous children down and focuses their brains". With the school holidays upon us, I decided to hunt out my CD collection for Mozart and found 2 CDs - one was a freebie from the Daily Telegraph and the other one was at the bottom of the pile - unused by the looks of it.
I will let you know the results when I have a group of children for the day!

There has been an extraordinary growth in hungry people in the UK - food banks (God Bless the Trussel Trust for starting them) are opening every week up and down the country to feed the growing hungry - due to many factors - job losses, divorce, benefit cuts etc. On radio 4 on 18th July (around then anyway) I was listening to the Today programme at 7am, where a young mother of 2 children hadn't eaten for 5 days, so that she could feed her children. In tears her story is not that unusual. Due to divorce, she had no money to feed herself or her children despite trying to get a job - any job in fact. This is Britain today - we have starving families - is this progress?

On the same news programme - Ken Clarke has been complaining about the removal of biscuits from cabinet meetings - he of all people does not need biscuits - in fact as a senior politician he should set an example by restraining his biscuit appetite! This is also Britain today - huge swathes of very overweight people, nay obese - costing the NHS millions in gastric bands - and other health problems due to overeating. I used to be amazed at the huge people in America - I mean HUGE. With a 'dunkin donut' cafe on every corner is it surprising?! But the UK is catching up.
I have a suggestion to make - when you buy a 2 for the price of 1 (biscuits for example) - donate the free packet to your local food bank. You will help feed a starving person and save yourself the extra calories by not eating the free packet.